Headlines
by leah-chan
Summary: Something dark this way comes...


I've seriously wanted to write this fic for a very, *very*, long time. But it just never seemed right before. *shrugs* I was heavily influenced by "Broken Wings, Faded Dreams", a Card Captor Sakura fic which is much, much better than this little -- thing. It's basically the same concept, only to a lesser extent. No beheadings this time, kiddies. _ I apologize in advance for the tacky James Bond referance. My fault, entirely.  
  
Warning: This. Is. Dark. People die. It doesn't have a happy ending. Just don't say I didn't warn you.  
  
--  
  
Headlines  
  
--  
  
"I read the news today, oh boy  
About a lucky man who made the grade  
And though the news was rather sad  
Well I just had to laugh..."  
  
A day in the life - The Beatles  
  
--  
  
Oh, it's you.  
  
Fine then. Go ahead and sit down.  
  
Cigarette? No? Mind if I do? Thanks.  
  
You read the newspapers recently?  
  
Tragic, really.  
  
Of course they rationalized it immediately. Abusive childhood. Violent tendencies. Nervous breakdown. He was the child-neglect poster-boy for days after the -- what did they call it -- incident? "Don't let this happen to your child."  
  
Yeah right.  
  
He snapped, that's it.  
  
One minute he's the prince of the Wizarding World and the next -- his picture's up in owleries across the island.  
  
You know, they interviewed me right after it happened. Damn journalists. They thought I expected it. I was his childhood rival, didn't I see his dark side back when we were going to school together? Of course I didn't see this coming. Just 'cause somebody gets into an adolescent grudge-match doesn't mean that they run off and do -- that.  
  
Was it the Imperius curse?  
  
People acting under the Imperius can *not* use their powers to *that* kind of an extent. Not that I'm really supposed to know things like that. Nah, I'm a good guy. I know which side's going to come out of this fight the winner, and it just happens to be the side *against* He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  
  
So you want to know what really happened?  
  
Sick of that ultra-processed filth they try to pass off as news?  
  
Want all the gory details that make people like the talented Ms. Skeeter lose her low-fat lunch?  
  
Sure, I'll tell you. I was there.  
  
We were all holding out at the stronghold, Aurors, bounty-hunters, assorted allies, you know the lot. Hell, we even had one of Her Majesties' Secret Service.  
  
Let's just say the Queen would loose a good deal of face if her peaceful little kingdom were to start experiencing the ten plagues of Egypt. Try explaining a hail of frogs at one of those summit things.  
  
Anyway, we're all standing in a pretty little line outside the palais de la résistance. I'm there, he's there, those two bumbling idiots are flanking him as usual, and Dumbledore's there too. I can't see why he still fights -- he's got to be pushing two hundred by now.  
  
The bad-guys attack, right on schedule. It's practically routine. Lackeys in the front on foot, next ranks on broomstick, a couple giants, a couple dragons. You-Know-Who's pulling the strings from the back, riding a giant snake. Like the one from the Chamber of Secrets, only bigger. The usual formation. Nothing that we can't handle.   
  
So all's well for abuse-boy and the rest to start with. He's taking out minions left and right, making good time at it, too. He seems all cool, calculating, nothing matters to him but winning the fight. However, one of the spineless Death Eaters gets a good shot, two, in fact, and down go his little friends, like dominoes, one on top of the other.  
  
He gets mad. Real mad. We're talking vengeance here. Wrath-of-an-angry-God fury. It's like something straight out of those god-awful Muggle movies.  
  
He just kinda starts to glow. His eyes get all dark, and you can see the fire in them. No kidding, you can *see* it.  
  
His wand, it just sorta exploded, turned into this light that started to fly around him for a bit. Someone tried to hit him with a curse while all this was going on, but it just bounced straight off him, right back to the person who cast it.  
  
By that time we'd all stopped, both sides, we were just watching him. The sparks, what used to be his wand, they shot into him...  
  
And then he started to kill people.  
  
Good, bad, it didn't make any difference. Power shot from his body, his fingers. His looks *killed*.  
  
People started to panic, to run, anything to get away from what he had become.  
  
I escaped. He let me go, really. He looked at me, straight in the eyes, and then let me leave.  
  
That scene, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Nothing.  
  
Power. Unrestrained power. And the look in his eyes. I'll probably remember it until I die.  
  
Why'd he do it?  
  
He had a shitty lot in life, and he lost the things that really counted. He turned to his magic in his moment of need -- and it latched onto his mental instabilities. He was insecure, angry, mourning. He thought his powers could help him.  
  
But power never helps anyone.  
  
...  
  
And hey, if you see him around somewhere, tell him Malfoy says "hi", all right?  
  
-end- 


End file.
